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About 20mins from Sudbury if you can't find anything closer. Can take anything and access is excellent. Alec

Don't suppose you've got a Kent pattern one with a Royal Ordnance stamp on it and a WW1 date? Still trying to replace the one an idiot acquaintance of mine left on a canal towpath in Birmingham. Alec

The field we're buying next door to our place is under arable cultivation and the soil structure is a bit poor, so if anyone needs to drop off any chip (even connie, or dirty stuff)/grass cuttings/any other plant material then please drop me a PM. It's right by an A-road, so no problem with access. The site will be pretty much permanently available. Alec

Variable. It depends on whether it's a large portable bandsaw which is difficult to road-tow or a basic Alaskan, or even a Peterson type circular saw mill. All have their places, and are different prices per day but produce a different result in terms of dimensions, cutting pattern, access requirements. Experience also comes into it - slabbing up a lump through-and-through as it comes, leaving 'rustic' timber is a very different thing from the experience needed to see how to make the most of a log. Take a 3' oak butt for example - this may be able to yield some top quality timber, or far less top quality timber, depending on how it is treated. Also note that mill and one bloke will be limited in what they can move, so if the job spec is to mill it and leave it in a pile next to the log, no worries, but if it needs moving anywhere then unless it's small stuff moving it will take more time. Burrell and I have found it far more efficient to work together, both milling. We get a lot further than one of us would in two days. Extra mills means less re-setting - you can use one to set up the ideal first cut, then the other one slabbing away behind. This yields better timber in the same time. Also need to take into account travel distance, and whether there is a charge for damage from foreign objects (e.g. nails and barbed wire) which depends a bit on where the tree has been growing. Also worth noting that, for people coming to site, they are normally on a day rate, or maybe a half-day rate. Taking your timber to a mill is a totally different prospect, but that probably doesn't go as one mill and one bloke. A range of between £250 and £450 per day is about right, depending on the factors above, but some mills are likely to come with two operators so the costs will be higher. Alec

Hi Andrew, Your comment on borax - you're correct that it is not fixed to the timber structure, but if you apply it while the timber is green, the cell structure is still open and it disperses right through. It will wash off the surface, so you would need to keep it from being exposed to start with, but once it is well in there you will only lose it from the surface. For me, the particular advantage is that oak sapwood seems to be loved by woodworm, even when fairly dry and the borax kills them. I would be very concerned about keeping sapwood on oak dry if you want to preserve it. It is particularly vulnerable and easily rotted - so much so that (since I usually use oak for exterior durability) I deliberately leave logs lying on the ground and the sapwood usually rots right off in a couple of years. Alec

I'd forgotten that thread - did you ever get any feedback? I still need some for the same purpose I originally did! Alec

I used to work as a cherry picker in the season, so have spent quite a lot of time up cherry trees over the years. I think what you are looking at is damage to the leader (where the black bit is) resulting in growth from a side bud. This is what is indicated by the grain pattern. I would speculate that the damage here was from bacterial canker, which cherries are prone to and doesn't always progress, so it can cause damage rather than death, resulting in a level of damage down as far as the bud which broke. This has interfered with the genetic material at the tip, causing it to grow in an odd way. I've seen others where it results in the stem being flattened, or growing sort of wings out of the side of the stem, or spiralling, or growing really long with no strength so it hangs straight down several feet and flowers at the wrong time of year! Alec

Too far over for me to know anywhere I'm afraid (I'm right on the western edge of Suffolk, which is at the bottom of my garden). If you were over my way I would say Glenwood in Linton. Not sure on the layout, but one way out of the hole may be to substitute standard high tensile socket head cap screws or even bolts? These may be easier to lay your hands on in a hurry than the torx ones? Alec

If I'm right, you don't want that one, even if you could get it. I'm no mycologist but my understanding of meripilus is that there is highly likely to be considerable heartwood decay running a considerable way up the butt. I'm keeping an eye out for suitable ones. Alec

Check the heads of any remaining - they are likely to have 8.8 stamped in, probably somewhere around the rim. If they do, don't use cheaper ones without this stamped on, and certainly don't use the stainless ones. 8.8 is high tensile steel, mild steel (bzp or plain) or stainless ones are likely to shear off and cause you more grief in a very short time than waiting. Whereabouts in the country are you? Alec

The one to look at on chainsawbars is the Granberg precision grinder. Much better than hand filing and gives control of all angles, hook and tooth length so can recover uneven chains. It's not as quick at removing material as the bench type but can be used on the bar, and in the field. Alec

It's not necessarily the mix - it can be a duff batch of fuel. However, if you've run your other kit on the same batch of mix and it's been fine it suggests the settings. My 026 refused completely to run on normal settings. Spud had to set it up in the end to something completely wrong, but which works. If the saws have now seized and you can't be bothered to fix them, there's enough residual value there to be worth not just chucking in the skip. Alec

I think we know which way she'll be voting in the great Stihl vs. Husky debate then:001_smile: It's my younger daughter's 3rd birthday coming up - she'd better not see this thread or she'll be getting ideas. Alec

I agree with Barry - if the saws both failed on the same mix of fuel then it is highly unlikely that both simultaneously developed an air leak or similar. I would be looking to the fuel - and not necessarily because you mixed it wrongly. I have had this in the past with an 064 and an 066, both dying on the same fuel mix which was definitely down to the petrol. 4-stroke car engines are way more tolerant of poor fuel blending than high performance 2-strokes. Having established that there were no air-leaks or similar, new pot and piston fixed it, but in my case spending over £500 on one incedent was actually the primary reason at the time for switching to Aspen. Alec

Definitely mill. If it's really big, and sound at the base, I might have a contact who is interested. Alec

You can only get smaller logs in a Rayburn or in a Victorian style open fireplace. There are also some shallower stoves designed to fit in an existing Victorian/Edwardian fireplace opening. Alec

It may be worth dropping Charles Hey a PM. Martin (Burrell) and I milled some for him at Easter and the top length from the second tree may have what you are looking for in it. Obviously won't be fully dry yet, but it should be ready for dropping in a kiln. Alec

Cheers Peter, not much use to me but will keep someone warm Alec

What's the elm like Peter? Anything that can be extracted in reasonable diameter/length? Cheers Alec

Haven't had any problems. All my older saws (1960s - 1980s) have been big Stihls for milling. I've bought them secondhand, sometimes running sometimes not. I never assume they are tuned and usually they get a carb kit and a new spark plug regardless, following which I set them to factory settings and tune the low, then set the idle so the chain just doesn't run. I leave the high alone. If this works, they get left alone, if not they go to Spud who has also set the high on a few of them using his tachometer. I find that they are smokey for about half a tank, then burn very clean with no visible exhaust. Alec

With a spade, shearing the bark away down the length of the log. Really, it works well enough in the absence of anything else. Alec

Nope - exactly the same as the oil has been improved. They also run really nicely on Aspen Alec

They might be, particularly the ones near the fingers of the gloves, but the general dark marks are more likely to be from the bar and chain. This cut is very near the ground - effectively 'proper' timber felling height whereas metal is usually more common a bit higher up. In a field setting the first row of barbed wire is rarely below 8" and in a suburban setting bird boxes etc are usually around head height or a bit above. Oak stains up really quickly when making awkward cuts and leaving the bar against the surface, particularly when there's a bit of paint missing. They could also be from when the rootball was dropped off if a lever was used. Alec

I always like seeing that one again

That is an 090, somewhere in the Phillipines. The video has been up before with a continuation one. Alec